NATO Ex-official: Putin feared in vain and annexed Crimea

Former NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow said that the Alliance was not going to deploy their base in Crimea, as afraid of the Kremlin.

BERLIN (QHA) -

A former official of the North Atlantic bloc Alexander Vershbow responded to the statements of Moscow on reasons for annexation of Crimea in an interview with the German edition.

“Allegations that NATO was going to seize Sevastopol, as well as stories about ethnic cleansing and atrocities against the Russian-speaking population are all absolute nonsense ... Little unmarked green men were sent on the peninsula. Later, President Putin admitted they were Russians, who actually carried out the coup in Ukraine,” the NATO ex-official said.

Previously, the Speaker of the Russian Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko claimed that Russia annexed Crimea to prevent NATO military presence in the ports of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol.